“Public and accessible healthcare is not a right, but a necessity.”

Kauree Bennett, a rising junior at Magazine High School, is dedicated to making proactive change within youth healthcare. She is very excited to serve as a first-year member on the Youth Advisory Council. Her journey in healthcare began serving as the Youth Ambassador for the School-Based Health Alliance of Arkansas. From there, she expanded through creating a Youth Action Council at her high school and surrounding schools. She is passionate about the overall accessibility children and youth alike have to safe healthcare. In the future, she hopes to bridge together different branches of STEM and the study of medicine.

“Our voices need to be louder when they help those without a voice.”

Joey Kaji, will be a sophomore at the University of Rochester as a part of the Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS) Program. Joey is thrilled to return for his third year as a Youth Advisory Council Member. He has worked on health legislative projects, mental health research, and student advocacy. Joey began working in advocacy as a part of the Providers and Teens Communicating for Health (PATCH) program, where he took on a project to help the fledgling School-Based Health Centers in his district.

Joey loves chemistry and computer science and hopes to use the skills learned there to pave the way for improved healthcare worldwide. Joey’s passion lies in combining his many interests to help improve healthcare access, especially for other youth. He hopes amplifying youth voices in regard to healthcare will lead to better lives for all.

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.” – Rumi

Muntaha is a senior at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, majoring in Neuroscience. She is a returning member of the School-Based Health Alliance’s Youth Advisory Council. Muntaha’s passions include health equity, journalism, public policy, and advocacy. She is a research assistant with Michigan Medicine’s Department of Neurology and also serves as an editor for The Michigan Daily. Beyond campus, she also partners with various national and state-level campaigns to expand youth access to inclusive sexual health resources. Through her work on the council, Muntaha aims to improve healthcare accessibility for all, regardless of socioeconomic status.

“America’s healthcare system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.”

Rikhil Ranjit, a freshman at Stanford University, is a returning Youth advisory council member and avid healthcare accessibility advocate. He took notice in his county’s gradual adoption of school-based health centers (SBHCs) and worked on health policy advocacy in the Georgia General Assembly. He has organized various 5K walk/runs, annual math/spelling/oratorical competitions, and other initiatives to raise money for shelters and other key necessities to support children with cancer. Through his various advocacy experiences, Rikhil strives to make healthcare a fundamental right.

“The groundwork for all happiness is good health.”

Nikhil Reddy, a sophomore at Stanford University studying Economics, is a returning Youth Advisory Council member from Dallas, Texas. His interest in health policy is rooted in research undertakings at the Harvard School of Public Health and UT Southwestern, as well as policy discourse as a national champion in Public Forum debate. As part of the SBHA Youth Advisory Council, Nikhil hopes to bridge the gap between youth perspectives and the healthcare policy-making process.

“With technology advancing at increasing speeds, and with new tools available to us, it is even
more important now to narrow the gaps in healthcare inequity than ever before.”

Annabel Sparano is a senior high school student at Ranney School. She has been involved in community healthcare initiatives for the prior three years. She serves on multiple youth advisory councils for health organizations in New Jersey and recently joined the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) on a national level. Annabel has coauthored manuscripts identifying healthcare discrepancies among patient populations with different insurance status. She has a committed interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in bioinformatics and precision medicine. She has already pursued projects studying ways AI can help limit healthcare inequities for our future and plans to continue such study in college.

“If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that right?”

Sahana Srikanth is a rising senior at William Mason High School and is excited to be a first year member of the SBHA Youth Advisory Council. Sahana’s passions are advocating for policy changes that support youth well-being across diverse communities and amplifying youth voices in public health decision-making. She is especially interested in the intersections of mental health, educational equity, and youth literacy. Sahana currently serves as Ohio State Captain for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s STRIPED Eating Disorder Advocacy Initiative, where she collaborates with legislators to advance policies aimed at preventing the onset of eating disorders among youth. In addition, Sahana is the Executive Director of the Young Learners Foundation, a youth-led nonprofit focused on increasing access to literacy resources, and serves as a Deputy Director of Equality in Forensics, a national organization promoting equity in speech and debate. Through her role on the SBHA Youth Advisory Council, Sahana hopes to champion the critical work of School-Based Health Centers and help close gaps in healthcare access for young people nationwide.

“Health is based in community; we will achieve progress through solidarity.”

Jeesoo Suh is a rising junior at Mountainside High School, and will serve as a first-year Youth Advisory Council member for the SBHA. She is deeply committed to supporting the development of healthcare infrastructure that is made for, and by the communities they serve, and wants to work towards a future in which everyone has access to the resources they need to survive and thrive. Working with the Oregon School-Based Health Alliance has been crucially formative for these goals, and collaboration with this council to better uplift all our voices is a natural next step! In her own time, Jeesoo enjoys competing in Lincoln Douglas debate, sewing, writing, and hopes she can contribute this passion for creativity and analysis to the strengthening of school-based healthcare nationwide.

“The first step to making the world a more equitable place is providing care to those who need it the most”

Ketan Tamirisa is a rising sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis on the pre-med track, and is thrilled to be a third year member of the SBHA Youth Advisory Council. Ketan’s passion lies in facilitating change in his community and advocating for legislation to help mitigate disparities in healthcare. He is currently conducting university-level research in health policy at UT Southwestern and is an intern for Harvard’s STRIPED Youth Corps and Stanford’s REACH Lab. As part of this council, Ketan strives to impact others on a national level as well as foster a more healthcare-accessible environment for all.